Communication is one of THE most important skills for managers. How you communicate impacts everything you and your team do every day. Delegation, explaining goals, defining expectations, giving feedback, handling conflict and disagreement – it’s ALL ABOUT your ability to communicate well – your communication skills. And that starts with understanding the five different communication styles, as I describe in this video. …
How are you identifying “hi-po” leaders?
What are you doing to make sure the right people are in your Emerging Leaders program? Assessing your current workforce allows you to evaluate who’s ready for advancement and training. But while the usual practice is to select the high-potential (a.k.a. “hi-po”) individuals, that’s not always the wisest option. It’s an acceptable starting point, but we need to remember that …
How to manage negative employees
Do you have a doom-and-gloom employee on your team? Someone who always points out the worst outcome, why ideas won’t work, and generally seems to have a little gray cloud following them around all the time? They might do great work, but they’re also a drag on everyone’s energy. Even if you don’t work directly with them, you can feel …
Manage-from-Home Tips
I’ve started a new week-daily post on LinkedIn and Facebook under the hashtag #TheLeadershipGeekWorksFromHome. I invite you to follow the hashtag on either (or both!) platforms. What will you be getting? Here are the first eight tips: 1. Reach out daily to check in Don’t wait for your team members to contact you. There are a host of reasons why …
Humor in the workplace
Have you ever had a joke or April Fool’s prank go really wrong? It’s hard to know what people find funny, and it’s all too easy to go very wrong with humor at work. Here are some alternatives to pranks and other ways to celebrate April Fool’s at work – including, if you stick through to the end, an out-of-the-box …
What do you need permission for?
Right now, we’re all anxious, concerned, stressed, and overwhelmed. Oh, and really uncertain. In other words, highly distracted by what’s going on: the novel coronavirus pandemic. And – if you’re anything like me and most of my clients – you’re also frustrated because of feeling un-focused, un-productive, and possibly just plain exhausted. Give yourself permission to feel all those things …
Managing gossip in the workplace
As a first-line manager or supervisor, how can you manage gossip in the workplace? How can you squash gossip without being viewed as a mean manager or as the “word police”? Workplace gossip is never a good thing – it creates anxiety, it excludes people, it generates mistrust and disengaged, anxious employees. Fortunately, there are a few simple things you …
IMAGINATION: a key leadership skill
I was talking with a client this morning about the challenges we’re all facing because of the coronavirus pandemic. We were discussing the fact that there are people who are doing things the way they’ve always done them, even though this isn’t effective or appropriate or useful since things aren’t how they’ve always been. And it occured to me that …
Managing a remote team
Suddenly working from home AND trying to manage your suddenly-working-from-home employees? It’s hard enough getting organized to work from a home office, but when your whole team is trying to get organized from home and trying to stay on top of the work, it’s that much crazier. Add into that the fact that your kids and partner are also home, …
Future You knows …
The pandemic is a huge, scary unknown. What’s going to happen? Will you lose your job? (Have you already?) Will you get sick? Will someone you love get sick? The constant stream of news and social media anxiety is overwhelming. And it’s easy to get sucked into the worry / fear cycle, especially since there are some very good reasons …